How the Evolution of Pharmaceuticals is Improving our Overall Health

Pharmaceutical companies often get a bad reputation, as media attention is focused on tragedies, recalls, and other sensationalist stories. However, pharmaceutical testing and the resulting evolution of pharmaceutical products is saving lives and improving our overall health in a variety of ways.

Lower Rates of Infection
There was a time just one hundred years ago when even going to a hospital was a major infection risk. Infection killed over half of all hospital patients. Sanitary precautions have improved infection rates in health care settings immensely. There are many pharmaceutical laboratories dedicated solely to infection control. For example, Nelson Laboratories actually tests the packaging for medical devices to ensure that it meets FDA standards and will keep medical devices completely sterile, preventing infections that can compromise health or even kill patients.

Preventative Health Care
While medicine once focused almost entirely on treating disease, new innovations in pharmaceutical products have made it possible to actually prevent them. For example, there are many new testing technologies that can detect risk factors for disease, so they can be treated before actual illness occurs. Innovation in heart diagnostic tests such as improved angiograms allow physicians to identify and treat future heart disease before damage has occurred.

Improvements in the Lives of People with Disabilities
Many people who have disabilities are able to live more functional and independent lives due to pharmaceutical products. Prosthetic limbs grow more usable by the day, with many now functioning identically or even better than the body part they replace. Ocular implants allow deaf people to experience sound and navigate in a hearing world. Pharmaceuticals allow people to live and engage fully in the world around them.

Identification of New Dangers
A rapidly changing world brings with it new and frightening health threats. Microbes are evolving to evade current sterilization products, for instance. However, pharmaceutical companies don’t just work with current dangers; they predict new challenges and develop ways of dealing with them. The Ebola vaccine, for example, was in development phases long before the most recent pandemic, which is why it is currently in the last stages of testing at a time when the planet needs it most.

There are so many ways that new innovations in pharmaceutical products are improving our health. New innovations are being introduced every day that give people around the world a chance at a longer and healthier life.